Project GROW named Mayor's Proud Partner

Art mobilizes, gives voice to Fifth Ward community

GLORIA ALVAREZ, Chronicle Correspondent

Published
5:30 am CDT, Thursday, October 7, 2004

The Fifth Ward has a dirty little secret. Well, not so little. It's the 36-acre Many Diversified Industries hazardous waste site. But Reginald Adams, through Project GROW, has raised area residents' awareness of the environmental issues — and solutions — related to the site.

The program recently won a Mayor's Proud Partner Award for its grass-roots art and education efforts.

Executive director of the Museum of Cultural Arts, Houston, Adams moved to the Fifth Ward two years ago. Then he learned that the MDI site was only five blocks from his new home. Worse, it was directly across the street from Bruce Elementary School. Despite locks and fences, children still played on the site.

"I literally could not sleep that night," Adams said. "What could we do to make the community aware of that site? These kids have no clue. And I had a 3-year-old son."

One of the museum's missions is public art. Adams figured if he could get the area's kids involved through art, he could focus the parents' attention on the site as well. Targeting the area within a 1-mile radius of the site, he hoped "to grow the community's awareness of the waste site problem. When things grow, they're healthy. We needed to bring some health — some social health — into that area. Hence the name, Project GROW."

The first step was to help the children understand the dangers of the site in particular and environmental contamination in general.

"We invited a soil scientist at the EPA to tell kids about the site and what the kids could do to protect themselves from further exposure to toxins, especially lead," Adams said. "TetraTech [remediation specialists] brought in tools to show the kids. The kids then translated what they'd learned into visual images, which are now the murals."

There are scores of colorful murals painted by 180 young Project GROW participants on the site, which is now undergoing remediation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Word of the children's art project was spread through fliers, word of mouth, and at community centers, neighborhood associations, area churches and schools.

"When I did that painting, I felt great. If we had those buildings, the community would be better. It's what I want to see in the area," Trachey said.

Projects in the works

The first phase of Project GROW — educating residents and using that knowledge to make art — is complete, but new challenges have emerged.

Adams and his group are now working with the city's Child Lead Poison Prevention program to target that too-common problem.

More ambitious is MOCAH Village, the group's dream development for the site. The cleaned-up property will be auctioned later this year, and the group has been invited to submit a bid. The children's artwork, said Adams, "set the tone for the MOCAH Village project. The idea of what happens next became important. How do we bring in assets that would improve the area?"

Plans for MOCAH Village call for housing, commercial development, a museum and art school, a library, a park and wellness center, and incubator space for nonprofit organizations.

The reality of MOCAH Village is not certain, but Adams sounded confident. "As a group, we represent the voice of the community," Adams said. "Other developers don't have that moral authority."

Adams accepted the Mayor's Proud Partner Award last Monday.

"I wish that the children who were involved could be there with me," he said. "It's their work we're recognizing. If you drive around the site, you're not going to see my name. I'll receive this award in honor of all the kids, the parents and the volunteers who worked on this. It's all about them."

"We really have to credit Reginald with this. Project GROW was the accelerant that got it all started. It's been instrumental in mobilizing the community. People are talking about it, asking 'When's the next meeting with the EPA?' "

They know their efforts have worked, Byrd said.

"We can see it, because if you drive by the site, you can see people working [on cleanup].